Romano Volta, Chairman of Datalogic S.p.A., spoke at the convention entitled “Destination Vietnam: commercial and investment opportunities”, organised by the Industrialists Association of Emilia Romagna, in collaboration with Ucimu and Regione Emilia Romagna

Bologna, Italy, February 12, 2010 - The convention entitled "Destination Vietnam: commercial and investment opportunities" took place on February 11th in Bologna organised by the Industrialists Association of Emilia Romagna, in collaboration with Ucimu and Regione Emilia Romagna. The event was also attended by the Ambassador or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Italy, Dang Khành Thoai, and the commercial Councillor of the Embassy, Tran Thanh Hai.

Romano Volta, Chairman of the Board of Datalogic S.p.A. gave his speech to attest how Vietnam over recent years has confirmed its excellent standing among the most dynamic economies of the Asian continent. Vietnam has indeed continuously revealed to be a very appealing destination for foreign investments.It's not by chance that Datalogic has opened a new factory in Saigon, Vietnam, for the design, manufacture and distribution of products for the Asian market. The investment was part of a strategic development project of Datalogic's internationalization and expansion worldwide.

Datalogic developed this project in particular with the end goal being that of strengthening its leadership on the emerging market that is growing strongly in the "Asia Pacific" area. How? On one hand, by increasing sales in that area (from 10% to 25% by 2015) and the competitiveness of specific products, designed and manufactured for this area; on the other hand, by providing after-sales and assistance services to back-up the sales and marketing activities for this striving market.

"With the factory in Saigon - Romano Volta pointed out - Datalogic aims at consolidating its leadership on reference markets through the direct presence in strategic geographic areas of local facilities and resources that take care of the whole life cycle of the product, from its design, fulfillment, distribution and even after-sales assistance".

"The new factory in Vietnam, situated in the High Tech Park of Saigon and specialised in the production, research and development of cutting edge technologies - Romano Volta continued - means that we can achieve the objectives of Datalogic's project: on one hand, specific products for this market at competitive costs are designed, manufactured and distributed in the South East Asian area in these premises, on the other, the premises guarantee after-sales and assistance services to back-up the commercial and marketing activities directly on site".

Hence, this new investment enables the Group to establish close relations with all the stakeholders of the territory, developing products made specifically for the requirements of the customers of this important market of Asia and the Far East.

"Vietnam is developing remarkably and is a strategic location of the whole Asian area - Romano Volta recollected - not to forget that it is also a reliable State that is also able to offer a substantial and winning scenario for investors such as Datalogic". "The new factory and the design centre - Romano Volta concluded - are provided with cutting edge equipment, which proves our efforts in creating a modern and hi-tech company, focussed on future development and consequently on R&D activities".

This project does indeed see Datalogic strongly involved in strengthening and increasing its resources working in Research and Development activities, which has always been one of the Group's main priorities. For this reason, Datalogic is developing important collaboration projects with 4 local Universities and is organising company apprenticeships for colleges and University scholarships: the aim of such actions is that of pin pointing, employing and developing qualified design engineers who are able to develop innovative products for the Asian market.